Brantwood students have undertaken a huge collaborative project to show their work at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield. This has been a wonderful opportunity to showcase the students’ beautiful work to the public. The exhibition is a celebration of natural colour so has fitted perfectly with our work in the dye garden. Every student involved in this multifaceted project has excelled. We only had a half term to see how much work we could create, and I’m blown away by what has been achieved in a short time when everyone collaborates. All students involved should feel very proud of what they have achieved. This has been a fantastic seed- to- (wool craft) – table opportunity. The work involved began in the dye garden growing the dye plants and maintaining our dye garden through the seasons, followed by the efforts of everyone involved in the natural dye processes to dye the yarns.
Many thanks to the Eyam-based students who’ve contributed to our rainbow of natural colours that we’ve achieved this year. Many of the balls of yarn are also on show in the gallery to show the range of colours we can grow.
Once all our dyed yarns dried and came back to school, many students contributed to the classroom-based work of creating bouquets of flowers with our naturally dyed yarn. This was an opportunity accessible to anyone as there are many ways to create a flower, from pompoms to more complex crochet designs, so we have a range of flowers in our bouquets. Students Bailey and Rhys worked hard to create stunning vases using local clays and slips to display our woollen flowers, allowing a cross-craft collaboration opportunity.
These works are on show until Sunday 30 November 2025 as part of the Ruskin Collection. Please take a visit and see our work in the Millennium Gallery if you’re in Sheffield city centre.
Emily McCartan
Felting/natural dye tutor, Brantwood School
The Capturing Colour exhibition in the Ruskin Collection at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield [Sat 21 December 2024 – Sun 30 November 2025] celebrates the use of natural colour throughout the Ruskin Collection, from natural pigments to paintings that replicate light cascading through stained glass windows. A fantastic opportunity arose for Brantwood students to produce work using natural dyes and pigments in response to this developing exhibition that would be displayed alongside the Ruskin Collection. In his wool craft session at the main site, pupil J produced a large woven panel, titled Molten Blanket, inspired by Sheffield’s metalworking past, the Big Melt at Magna Science Adventure Centre and the incredible colours produced by ferociously hot metal.
Designed, warped and woven entirely by J on a rigid heddle loom, and spanning over eight feet in length, the work is made using entirely naturally dyed yarn, produced over several weeks by students in wool craft, and ranging from rich magenta to soft pinks and buttercup yellow.
J is phenomenally proud of his work in the exhibition, which also features earlier woven pieces, including his work, Sunlight Blanket, for which he received the Johnson Cup. His work in the exhibition was also recently described in a feature on Radio 4’s Pick of the Week show by Sean Cooney.
Kate Bowman
Wool craft tutor and master practitioner,
Brantwood School
